[SINGAPORE] Singapore's Nium, a payments startup serving businesses, became a rare fintech unicorn in the city-state after raising more than US$200 million in fresh funding.

The company said Tuesday its value topped US$1 billion after a Series D round led by Menlo Park, California-based Riverwood Capital LLC.

Other backers included Temasek Holdings, Visa, Vertex Ventures, Beacon Venture Capital and Rocket Capital. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC also joined the round, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named.

Nium plans to use the funds to expand in the US and Latin America before pursuing an initial public offering in the US in 18 to 24 months, chief executive officer Prajit Nanu, 39, said in an interview.

The company will remain on the lookout for acquisition targets in those markets as well as Australia, he said.

Nium's unicorn status marks a milestone in Singapore, an affluent island nation of 5.7 million people that's trying to position itself as a vibrant fintech hub. There are more than 1,000 fintech startups in the country, mainly focusing on payments, lending, investment and personal finance.

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Pine Labs, a payments platform for merchants in India and South-east Asia, is one of the most valuable fintech startups based in Singapore, valued at US$3 billion.

"There has been a glass ceiling for South-east Asian fintech startups" with much investor focus placed on richly-funded consumer tech giants such as Singapore's Grab Holdings as well as Gojek and other Indonesian unicorns, Mr Nanu said. "That ceiling has been broken and we're likely to see more unicorns, largely in fintech, coming out of Singapore."

Nium, which means "rules" in Sanskrit, was co-founded as a cross-border remittance service in 2014 by Nanu, who was neither an engineer nor financier. After growing up in Mumbai, he got a taste of what it's like to build fast-growing businesses during his 12-year career at firms including Adventity and WNS Global Services.

Nanu came up with the idea after trying to send money from India to Thailand to organise a bachelor's party for a friend in 2013. He ran into a problem as a Thai resort refused to take his credit card and insisted on a bank transfer, while his bank in India requested an extensive list of documents for transferring US$640.

Today, Nium counts Thailand's Kasikornbank and Singapore Telecommunications among more than 200 clients. Similar to Stripe, Nium's software helps businesses to accept online payments. It also allows businesses to send money and issue physical and virtual credit cards.

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READ MORE:

• Temasek-backed Nium to expand in US ahead of potential listing

• Temasek-backed Nium to acquire travel payments company Ixaris for potentially £15m